small bore is deval patrick governor of massachusetts who gets to decide who the next senator will be and right up against a rock and a hard place of barney frank saying i wouldn't mind being a temporary guy and vicki kennedy and then, of course, ed markey thinking about running for the seat. interesting thing to see this in the senate and what deval patrick has to do. the other large bore is bashar assad. he gave a speech that was given in syria. he said "i'm not negotiating with terrorists." take that. yeah, sounds familiar. he is -- we keep waiting for him to fall, 60,000 syrians killed in this violence and no sign of -- >> amazing he lasted this long. >> mine is not exactly a new face. joe biden. on new year's day showed he is the one in the white house that can still work with congress. i think this is going to be a big year for biden because if the president is going to get anything accomplished with congress, it's clear he will need biden to work directly with them. i look for biden and wonder if it's going to make or break his prospects. >> they call him the mcconnell whispere